In the history of the Flames franchise, 606 players have tugged a red sweater over their heads and suited up for a regular season game. Of those, 22 played just a single game for either the Calgary or Atlanta Flames. We call them One Game Wonders.
Let’s talk about another One Game Wonder, Shawn Heaphy.
An Ontario kid, Heaphy was drafted into the OHL but stayed in junior B instead and then headed to collge. He spent four seasons with the Michigan State University Spartans, getting drafted by the Flames in the 1989 supplemental draft. He finished school and signed with the Flames after his senior year.
Heaphy spent two years in the Flames system with the Salt Lake Golden Eagles. He had two very productive seasons, with 77 and 65 points respectively over two seasons. He got just a single game in the NHL, coincidentally the same game where Patrick Lebeau made his only Flames appearance: Nov. 14, 1992 against Tampa Bay. He had two shots and zero points and then headed back to the minors. (Robert Reichel and Gary Leeman were out for that game, but soon returned.)
He left the Flames organization after the 1992-93 season and then played in a lot of interesting places:
- He headed to Europe and played for Bruneck/Brunico in Italy.
- Then he went back to North American and suited up for Las Vegas, Worcester and PEI.
- Then he played for a string of teams in Switzerland: EHC Bien-Bienne, Geneve-Servette HC, HC Ajoie, and SC Langnau.
- Then he went to Germany and played for Heilbronner Falken in the secondary league.
- Then he came back and briefly played for ECHL Fresno.
- Then he returned to Germany and played for Eisbaren Regensburg in the secondary league.
He retired in 2006.
Heaphy was a long-shot pick from the supplemental draft – it was basically a second NHL Draft for older college kids. He was a good minor leaguer and was a productive player in Europe – making what was probably good money and sleeping in his own bed most nights. If the choice was riding the bus across the far-flung reaches of the United States in the AHL and IHL or spending a decade in Europe, he could’ve made a worse choice.
